Pensioners drive Ford and GM into the junk yard

The billowing healthcare and pension costs for their huge army of retired workers have steered the American car giants onto a troubled road

ON the eve of the Shanghai Motor Show a fortnight ago, top executives from General Motors hosted a cocktail reception and dinner at Laris, a chic restaurant that looks out on the city’s glittering skyline.

The mood was celebratory; after a rough few years, the assembled GM powerbrokers felt that a new range of cars was finally going to stop the slide and restore the company to its rightful position as king of the automotive jungle.

Ed Welburn, GM’s head of global design, was fired up. He had presided over days of meetings in Shanghai aimed at turning GM’s disparate design offices worldwide into a single machine. Clutching a champagne glass, he introduced the senior GM execs to the assembled crowd, gushing: “We have had just a great, great week.”

Only Bob Lutz, GM’s head of product development, a motor-industry veteran, had doubts. Swirling his martini, he muttered about the